Optical Energy Detector (OED)

The OED was part of the original Floodlight system and served as a coarse detector for RF pulses, helping to reduce
the search range for the back-end digital parameterizer. The OED
utilized an acousto-optic spatial light modulator to introduce the RF
signal into the optical beam path, the Fourier transform property of a
lens to generate the Power Spectrum (PS), and a high-speed line scan
camera to digitize the PS. ISA built several installations of the
OED.

Optical Correlator (OC)

ISA developed the OC for performing a million-point correlation on
wideband signals in real time. This project culminated in a
rack-mountable, OC system whose processing power was 0.6 TFLOPS. This
system used liquid crystal on Silicon (LCOS) panels to modulate the
optical beam path. LCOS panels are commonly used in projectors sold in
the consumer electronics market. Various lens and beam shaping optics
were used to image one LCOS panel onto a second LCOS panel and take the
inverse Fourier transform. The OC used a diode laser, scan mirror, and
high-speed digital cameras.